Friday, August 03, 2007

"Art Clay Silver 650 Slow dry" for the silver. I beleive you can probably buy this on ebay sometimes, or if not do a search on the net for any online retailers. This turns into 99% silver after you bake it so its not that cheap. The single pouch in the pic cost about 40-55$ but I cant remember for sure, since I bought it in Japan a few years ago. They sell as single clays and also as make-it-yourself kits. I bought the kit (about 75$) cause it came with all the neccesary tools and manuals.

[img totally missing]

The 'former' design I had in mind. It wasnt long before I found out the clay was a bit hard to mold. It dries quickly, gets sticky easily with a small dab of water, and sticks all over the place. Good thing about it is as long as you dont bake it, you can turn it back into soft clay with some water. (I later used one that was dry and hard for a year, ziplocked it with water, and was ready to use after 2-3 days again)

[img totally missing]

The ones with straight lines, like the insignia, I rolled flat and cut the shapes out like a cookie cutter. The curvy ones were balled up into a near shape and carved/shaved out.

[img totally missing]

Wings, cut out and carved out on the inside. It dries fast so you can carve it out in about 30 or so minutes. I think I dried the clay about 1 day before I started carving any of them just to be on the safe side. It can crack and break if you drop it from high but its still rock hard when you carve them.

[img totally missing]

Front part of the ring put together. Its still looks and feels gritty since its not smoothed out.

[img totally missing]

Back 'ring' was done about 1.5 years after the front part insignia part was made. I was very busy, also didnt have the environment to play around with clay. The front part didnt turn out as I imagined so I at least wanted to get the best environment I could for the rest of the piece. The band here is not smoothed out yet.

[img totally missing]

After you bake it, it turns white. You can see if you compare with the previous pic. I put it over a normal oven fire first to dry the ring of any moisture lest it crack under higher heat later. Then used the little gas burners and heated it till it got all red hot, for about 5+ min. If you under heat it, it will most likly get brittle and break later on due to the silver not solidifying inside.

[img totally missing]

Scrape off the white layer (crystallized silver) with those bristly metal brushes and you get the melted silver underneath. Drop it lightly and we can see if its solid, it makes that metal sound.

[img totally missing]

I failed to take a pic but there was a process where you dip the ring in this liquid for a few minutes to give it the black rusty look. (its the orange tube in the pic) The surface of the whole ring turns into a blackish, rusty, oily metalic color...

[img totally missing]

After you get the black rusty oily ugly color, here comes the silver polish. You basically wipe the whole ring with it to give it the silvery shine. The black gritty color will stay in the deep crevices to give it the whole 'heavy silver accessory' look. If you have a solid ring you probably dont need to wipe as much since there arent as much hard to reach places. For this one I basicly 'washed' the whole thing with silver polish, wiping it everywhere cause there were so many curves and cracks. It still took around 1hr of wiping though, to get the color right.

[img totally missing]

The final piece. The curvy things in the front didnt turn out exactly as planned but oh well... Decepticon insignia, and wings represent seeker wings. The band in the back are suppose to look like metal wall like things that gradually lead up to 'rubble' behind both wings (can anyone say 'war'?). I really wish the curvy things turned out better but it was my first time and I wasnt use to carving them out. By the time it was ready to bake, I got the hang of it but it was way to late to do over. If I ever do get a hold of more clay in the future, it would be fun to make another one hopefully of better design. At the moment still wondering if I should wear it or give it away or something :p hee